Two People are Better Than One
by Bookdancer
Summary: Alex Rider and Joe Hardy are both captured by Scorpia, but circumstances soon lead to their escape... and then - wait, can't ruin the plot line. But with one of their lives on the line, will the other be able to bring help quickly enough... or will they die? K-Unit included. mini!Joe. protective!Alex. Brotherly friendship between the two.


**Okay, so a few things are different for this fic! For one, I've changed the ages. Joe is 6 (going on 7), Frank is 8, and Alex is 15. Sorry to the Alex lovers, but I really do prefer Joe as the youngest. I've gotten used to it with him and Frank, so... you get my point.**

**Also, Frank will not be in these. He will be mentioned, but that will probably be it.**

**I have also tried my best to create a six year old Joe who does his best to be strong. He will only show weakness to people he cares about and likes. However, that doesn't stop him from showing weakness to others every now and then. Therefore, Joey is, in this fic, a seemingly strong but inside really scared little boy. This is not me creating a Gary Stu! This is me creating a Joey who acts the way I think he will.**

**I also thought that Joe would be the most adorable six/seven year old ever, so picture this cute little face with bright blue eyes and tussled blond hair. Then add the flush of excitement on his face and the jeans and the shirt I'll describe in this one-shot. Oh, yeah, and you can't forget the teddy bear. :) Isn't he adorable?**

**I do not own Alex Rider or the Hardy Boys.**

**This is for ****yashendra2797, who once asked me to do a Hardy Boys/Alex Rider crossover in a review, but I told them that I didn't want to because I didn't want to make Alex seem all goody-goody next to the Hardy Boys ('cause, even though I love Alex, I love Joe just a teensy little bit more). ... so yeah, guess what? I lied. I really didn't mean to, I wasn't planning on writing this at all, actually, but then I got the idea, and I couldn't get it out of my head... so here it is! So yashendra2797, if you're reading this, this is for you.**

Two People are Better Than One

Alex looked up, startled, as the cell door clanged open, revealing... a little boy and his kidnapper/torturer. See, Alex Rider had been captured by Scorpia. They had apparently decided to screw the deal they made with MI6. Scorpia wanted revenge, and they were going to get it. Alex had been held for -wait, he didn't even know! The room was always brightly lit, with no windows and a random schedule. Every so often Alex would be taken to a 'torture room' and then be tortured. However, Alex would also be given grace periods of what Alex guessed to be two days. These happened whenever Scorpia felt Alex had had enough. He was approaching the end of his grace period now, in fact. But he knew it wasn't over yet. That was why he was so surprised.

"Get in, you stupid little brat!" The man snarled, pushing the little boy in. The boy had curly blond hair and bright, exquisite blue eyes that Alex had never seen before.

"I _told_ you!" The boy yelled. "I can walk!"

And then, to Alex's amazement, the boy kneed a Scorpia member - right in the nuts. Said Scorpia member let out a gasp of pain - apparently that hurt - and crumpled to his knees, still gasping.

Immediately, the boy turned to Alex and said, "C'mon!"

Then he turned and raced away. Alex, though surprised, soon followed. He found the boy at a corner, peering in both directions. Now that the boy wasn't speaking, Alex had a chance to observe him. He looked about six, maybe seven, and he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt that said 'That's how I roll.' on it with six pieces of sushi*. He had an adorable face, and Alex had the feeling he knew how to do the perfect puppy dog face, complete with doe eyes.

"Wait!" Alex cried, grabbing the boy's arm before he could run. "What's your name? And how old are you?"

"Joseph, but my friends call me Joe, and my _best_ friends call me Joey." Joe flashed him the cutest grin he'd ever seen. "You can call me Joey." Then he added, not knowing how touched Alex was feeling from those five words, "And I'm six, but I'll be seven in four days."

Right at that moment, not knowing why he did it, Alex vowed to himself that he _would_ get Joey home by his birthday. And _not_ in a body bag.

"I'm Alex." He found himself saying. "Let's go."

As they ran, Alex slowing down for Joey, Alex marveled at the pure genius of their kidnapper - he had color coded all of the hallways; the exit was red. Oh yeah, and please note the sarcasm. They soon found said exit. When they were seven yards away, the alarm went off.

Alex blanched and grabbed Joey, slinging the boy onto his back in a 'piggy back' hold. Then he ran faster, Joey clinging to his back. The two could hear yells but, miraculously, they managed to escape into the surrounding forest, unharmed except for Alex's previous injuries and a bruise on Joey's leg that came from when he was first captured.

* * *

Two days later, Alex and Joey were exhausted, dirty, tired, filthy, ready to drop dead, and muddy. But, after hours of walking, they'd finally found their way out of the forest... and into one of those towns you'd probably only see (usually) in movies. It had a dirt road, shops lining the street, and no houses in sight.** It did, however, have a phone.

Alex immediately zoned in on said phone, practically dragging Joey over to it. He punched in nine numbers. The sergeant still owed him a few favors.

Alex and Joey waited anxiously outside 'Bob's Rice and Beans' that, by the smell (and name) had been out of business for a long time. The call had ended several minutes ago, and now all they had to do was wait.

"So." Alex said, breaking the silence. "Why did you choose to escape? I thought it would be near impossible."

"Well," Joey said, then paused, his face scrunching up as he thought, "you know how two plus two is four?"

"Yeah." Alex replied, wondering what the boy was getting at.

"And then four cubed is 64."

Alex shot the younger boy a surprised look, and Joey responded by saying, "My babysitter brought her homework once, and she explained it to me.

"Anyway, two plus two is really two squared, right?" Alex nodded. "So, naturally, you would think that two squared is easier than four cubed. But say it's the number of fruit you have. Two squared pieces of fruit would give you four pieces of, but four cubed would give you 64. If you were starving, which one would be easier to deal with?"

"Four cubed." Alex replied.

"Exactly!" Joey said, grinning. "So, you would think escaping is harder than staying, but really, it's the opposite!"***

Alex blinked, surprised. He'd never thought of it that way before. In fact, he was pretty sure Joey was the only person who'd _ever_ thought of it that way. "You're pretty smart, you know that?"

"Really?" Joey asked. "People always say Frank's the smart one."

"Who's Frank?"

"He's my older brother." The blond replied proudly. "He's eight." Joey frowned. "I miss him."

Alex felt a pang of remorse. 'What would my life be like,' he wondered, 'if I had a brother. Or a sister, for that matter.'

Then they heard it. Gunshots.

"Get down!" Alex hissed at Joey.

But Joey didn't. He was frozen in terror, blue eyes wide with fear. Alex had completely forgotten that, underneath Joey's brave exterior, he was still only six years old. He was still only a little boy. Then Alex realized something. The bullets... they weren't even hitting near them. He could see dirt flying up several yards away. There was only one explanation. The bullets were a distraction.

Alex leapt up and wheeled around, searching for the ground attack that he was sure was about to appear.

"Oh, Alex!" A familiar voice called, stretching out Alex's name. The voice was behind the teenager.

Alex whipped around to see Samuel Jafetti (pronounced Za-fet-ee), the main bad guy, holding a knife against Joey's throat. A gun (Alex noted that it was a .9mm) hung loosely in Jafetti's other hand - his right. All in all, no matter what Alex did, Joey would end up getting injured.

The teen could have killed himself. How could he not have seen it?

"You get what I'm asking, don't you Alex?" Jafetti purred. "You for the boy. Well, really, you and the boy, but the boy won't be hurt."

Joey stared at Alex, his eyes wide and terrified. The boy, Alex was beginning to realize, had been in this position before. It obviously hadn't ended well.

"Hm, Joey? Do you wanna go home?" Jafetti laughed. "Back to Daddy? Back to Mommy? Back to Frankie?"

Joey's eyes, though terrified, shone with indignation. "You forgot Aunt Gertie!"

At that, Alex practically wilted. Joey had a family, back home. And this man had taken him from them.

Jafetti snarled. "Back to the man who started this?"

"Back to the man who loves me!" Joey shot back. Then he continued. "Four cubed! It's better than two plus two!"

Alex knew what Joey meant. He wanted Alex to go get help. For a six year old, he really was smart. At least, in this situation.

"Well?" Jafetti hissed. "Your decision?" He dug the knife into Joey's neck, causing a whimper to escape the boy's mouth.

Alex's heart practically broke, but he knew what he had to do.

Jafetti stared in disbelief as Alex turned and ran, quickly disappearing out of sight.

"No!" He howled, shoving Joey to the ground. "You ruin everything!" He yelled at Joey, then aimed a kick at the boy's ribs. Joey let out a cry as it landed, but kept his eyes fixed on where Alex had disappeared. But it was the same place that hope had just appeared.

* * *

"We have to rescue him!" Alex insisted, staring into the faces of the men who had just rescued him.

"And we will!" Wolf replied. "Emphasis on _we_. You, on the other hand, will stay here. You're injured."

"So?" Alex asked incredulously. "I'm healing!"

"Exactly!" Snake interrupted. "You're _healing_. Not you're _healed_. As a medic, I have to insist you stay here."

"And as a friend, I have to say I promised myself that I would rescue Joey! I got him into this mess, and I'm getting him out."

Fox stared at him in amazement. "You really think that they just kidnapped a random child?"

"Yeah." Alex paused, remembering how he'd thought Joey had been in this kind of mess of before. "Isn't that what happened?"

"Oh, no." Eagle said, actually serious for once.

"Cub." Wolf said softly. "It wasn't you. And I thought you said that Jafetti told you it was his father?"

"I thought he was lying." Alex replied.

"No." Snake said. "Cub, Joe's father is Fenton Hardy."

Alex gaped. He'd heard that name before. Fenton, he knew, was a world re-known PI, or Private Investigator. The man had taken down many people, but Scorpia? Alex hadn't heard about that yet.

Fox saw Alex's confused look and and elaborated, saying, "Fenton Hardy recently took down Jafetti's girlfriend's gang. Jafetti, obviously, decided to get revenge. However, he couldn't go for Laura, Fenton's wife, or Fenton himself, as the two are too high spirited. Therefore, he went for Joe, the youngest. Unfortunately for him, he forgot that Joe can be extremely stubborn and just as spirited as his parents. You saw what happened."

"So." Wolf said. "We'll get a plan going, and we'll attack tomorrow... Probably, anyway."

"Tomorrow." Alex said. "Tomorrow is his birthday."

"Joe's?" Snake asked. Alex nodded.

* * *

"So." Wolf said. "It's decided, then. We'll attack at midday - noon. Eagle and Snake, you'll take the East entrance. Fox and I'll take the West entrance. **** Cub, you're going through the one window on the North wall. Our groups-" here he motioned at Eagle, Snake, Fox, and himself, "-will be the distraction. Cub, you're getting the kid out." Wolf let his gaze wander over his unit mates. "We will _not_ fail."

* * *

_Noon, the next day:_

"All systems are a go." Fox muttered through his comms unit. "Alpha Team is moving in. Do you copy?"

"Copy that, Alpha team." Snake's voice drifted through the comms unit. "Beta Team is moving in."

"Copy that." Alex's voice replied. "Waiting for permission, Alpha Team. I repeat, Cub is waiting for permission."

"Cub!" Wolf hissed.

"What? If we're going A, B, C, etc., then Cub is still C! And my name isn't Charlie!"

"Whatever." Wolf replied.

_Five minutes later:_

"Seeing a bit of trouble." Snake said. "There's barely anybody here. Careful, Alpha and Cub."

"Copy that." Echoed through the comms unit twice.

_On the North wall:_

"I'm through the window." Cub muttered.

"Great job, Cub." Wolf told him. "Now get the kid."

"Got it." Cub replied.

Minutes later, Cub had defeated two guards and was racing along a familiar hallway to the door that held Joey. Then the door was open and said boy was in his arms, hugging him like a lifeline.

But Joey had known. He'd known that Alex would come back for him. He'd known because, beneath the pain and hurt that had been in Alex's eyes, there had shone a spark. A spark that Joey rekindled into a fire that would never give up.

And, as K-Unit, Alex, and Joey ran from the building, their mission a success, Alex whispered a 'Happy birthday, Joey.' and thought that, maybe, two people were better than one.

**What do you think? Was it good? Cute? Or was it absolutely horrible and disgusting?**

*** I actually found an orange tank top like this.**

**** I was thinking of an old western town, if you were wondering.**

***** (giggles sheepishly) Yes, I did come up with this by myself.**

****** Hehe, I didn't even realize what I did until I was halfway to through the next page! Anybody know what happened?**

**Also, this will be (if enough people ask) a multi-one-shot. This is just the beginning of a lovely brotherly relationship between Joe and Alex. Also, I'll only be doing a total of four one-shots (if enough people ask).**

**Another thing that you will only see if I do these is that they are spinoffs of a few quotes. Well, three of them are. (grins) One is taken directly from a quote. See if you can guess the quotes! By the way, this is one of the quotes. Which quote was it?**

**Anyway, I will not continue this if people don't ask, so if you do want me to continue, review and ask for me to!**

**Also, if I continue this, the name will change to Some Things are Worth Remembering.**

**Please review!**


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